Dear Stephen and Ven Yuttadhammo,

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "yuttadhammo" <buffer@...> wrote:
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Hodge" <s.hodge@...> wrote:
> > Yuttadhammo wrote:
> >
> > > One very large group of "Buddhists" in Thailand has come out and
> > > proclaimed
> > > publicly that "Nibbana is Atta."
> >
> > Dear Bhante,
> >
> > Could you give some details about this group, pls.
> >

The group is Dhammakaya. The matter is no secret, and has been the
subject of several books and controversies. Peter Masefield told me
they in fact teach of a series of levels of the higher atta, eight in
all if i remember correctly. Pra Dhammapitaka published a direct
attack on this doctrine in his book 'Nibbana and Anatta', which is
unfortunately only available in Thai.

Dhammakaya has published many other controversial doctrines: one such
is that the 'Dhammakaya' is the primordial essence of the Dhamma as
cosmos. The world began when the Dhammakaya split into two, the white
Dhammakaya and the black Dhammakaya. The history of the world is the
conflict between these. The white Dhammakaya from time to time
incarnates as a Buddha. Currently the white Dhammakaya has incarnated
in the person of the abbot of Dhammakaya monastery, Dhammajayo.

It is worth noticing that this group emerged in Thailand as part of a
movement in Thai culture from the 80's that started to re-acknowledge
the Chinese roots of Thai culture. Bankok was in fact a Chinese
trading port. One aspect of this is the adoption of aspects of Chinese
Buddhism. For example, statues of Kwan Yin are common all over
Thailand.

But Dhammakaya has pursued this angle more consciously, claiming
support for their Dhammakaya idea from Mahayana sutras. Unfortunately,
few people in Thailand have read the Mahayana sutras, so apart from
sectarian prejudice, they are unable to respond very meaningfully to
this aspect of Dhammakaya's arguments.

Dhammakaya aggressively pursues western education for its monks, and
is developing a generation of sophisticated University-educated
Sangha. They are already, and may be expected to continue, taking
their place on the world stage of Buddhist dialogue, in the
conspicuous absence of any international Dhamma teachers from
Thailand. To help this along, one of their policies is to endow
Universities with funds to pursue research and teachings. Like all
corporate sponsorship, this raises serious questions of independence
in research.

in Dhamma

Bhante Sujato